> My location allows me to access the SCI database from the convenience of my
> desk. Danica’s paper has been cited twice.
So it appears than that Typo Knig’s papers have been cited more than the paper that Danica McKellar co-authored. I’d like to know how many times my one paper has been cited. Zero, I suspect. It’s “Khayyamic n-Simplices - A Generalization of Pascal’s Triangle” by Wendell Wagner, Jr., in The Journal of Undergraduate Mathematics, Volume 7, Number 1, March 1975.
> Sexy Hollywood star Heddy Lamarr (from Austria with a biography that reads
> like a thriller) was regarded as something of Mathmatical genius and If I
> remember correctly did end up getting advanced degrees in mathamatics after
> her film career was over. Some of her inventions/theories still are (pun here)
> making waves.
No, this isn’t accurate. Here’s the true story:
She was the co-inventor of frequency-hopping (spread spectrum). She never even attended college. She was apparently quite a smart person, but she never did anything else that displayed her mathematical/scientific/engineering abilities. She just happened to be at the right place and the right time to come up with the idea of frequency-hopping.
Darryl Lict - You may be right. I don’t know - I don’t like football. But I know Alan studied law while playing pro football full time. During his and in his career he started in 235 games. He almost never missed a game. All I know is he was (and probably still is) smart and kind and very gentle for someone so large.
We should create our own version of a Google Bomb. Everyone at the Dope who authors a paper (no matter the subject) should cite Wendell’s paper. Get your friends and coworkers involved too! Let’s make Khayyamic n-Simplices - A Generalization of Pascal’s Triangle#1!
That would be sweeet! But co-authors, referees, and journal editors would probably not let it pass. It’s a rare thing when someone can pull off a scientific joke like that. I understand that Ralph Alpher was quite pissed that his work was turned into a joke - by his advisor!
As I recall an NPR report on her, wasn’t it more inspired by her eidetic remembrances of her then-husband’s cocktail-party conversations than her own original thinking? Eidetic (so-called “photographic”) memory would be an advantage for an actress, even one as hot and naked as her.
Paul Winchell had a Doctor of Acupuncture degree (seriously). He also held patents on the first artificial heart, the flameless cigarette lighter, illuminated pen- ballpoint (behind cartridge), the freezer interrupt indicator, battery heated gloves, a battery lighted key case, a portable blood plasma defroster, a sectional garment for hypothermia, a piezo-electric diaphragm, an aluminum electrical generator, novelty phonograph records, novelty upside down mask and mirror, a reversible alphabet that could be seen normally when shown in a mirror, rubber sand that allowed for the sturdy attachment of pictures to frames, an invisible garter belt and a retractable fountain pen.
Ross Martin, best known as Artemus Gordon in The Wild Wild West, had a doctorate in- I believe- music, but I unfortunately can’t find a cite. (He’s been dead a bit too long I suppose.) He was something of a Renaissance man who spoke many languages and read several books per week.
Thanks for mentioning this. I had no idea how brilliant he was. According to this site and Wiki, he spoke seven languages, was a trained concert violinist (giving his first solo performance at age eight), and also had an MA in psychmetrics and a law degree. But, alas, no mention of a doctorate.
> As I recall an NPR report on her, wasn’t it more inspired by her eidetic
> remembrances of her then-husband’s cocktail-party conversations than her own
> original thinking? Eidetic (so-called “photographic”) memory would be an
> advantage for an actress, even one as hot and naked as her.
I believe the story goes as follows: When she was married to her first husband, a German arms manufacturer, she heard him discuss with other people at the dinner table one of the main problems that existed with torpedoes. The problem was that it would be better if they could communicate with them after they were launched so that even if a ship moved, it would be possible to hit it with the torpedo. The problem with trying to communicate by radio was that, whatever radio frequency one used, the ship could jam it. Even if one used many frequencies, it would be possible to jam the signal at all of the frequencies.
Years later, in 1942, after she had divorced him and moved to Hollywood to act there, she was talking one day with George Antheil, an avant-garde composer who also composed film scores for a living. (It appears to me that she would have been between her second and third husbands at the time.) Antheil was very mechanically inclined, since his avant-garde music used a lot of instruments specially designed for his music. They were sitting at the piano, where Antheil was playing a song that had lots of jumps back and forth in the notes. It occurred to Lamarr that if one could jump around in frequency very quickly in sending and receiving radio signals, one would have a radio signal that would be difficult to jam (or even to be know that it was there). All one would have to do was to synchronize the timing for the sender and the receiver so they would both know at any split-second what frequency the radio signal was being sent at. She explained this to Antheil, who said that one way to mechanically control a radio signal was to use a player piano roll, in which the frequency of the signal would jump around 88 different frequencies several times a second. They patented this idea. It didn’t get used until thirty years later, at which point it was possible to change frequencies much faster using electronic methods instead of mechanical ones.
I’ve never heard anything about Hedy Lamarr’s memory. I’ve read that the general consensus in Hollywood was the following: She was one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood. She was obviously a very smart person. She was, unfortunately, not a very good actress.
Incidentally, according to the link in Fiveyearlucker’s post, the Chayes-McKellar-Winn paper has been cited three times, not two times.
My husband (the sports nut) would like me to add Dr. Randy Gregg, 5-time Stanley Cup Champion with the Edmonton Oilers and current orthopedic surgeon to the list. I’m guessing he is famous to people who know about sports.
Another interesting hockey player is the Honorable Ken Dryden, former goalie (arguably one of the best to play the game) and current Member of Parliament and former Cabinet Minister in Canada. He has a law degree from McGill University and several honourary doctorates from various Canadian universities. Sorry, realized we weren’t looking for honourary doctorates here. Still, interesting career moves.
This is an old thread, I know, but it came up on a google search for celebrities with doctorates. I figured it was worth a bump for an update on one of my favorite actors, who was mentioned earlier in this thread:
